Summary — Chapter 9: Flotsam and Jetsam
Gandalf and Théoden leave Isengard to meet Fangorn. Aragorn
and his cohorts, staying behind, are given human food obtained by
the Ents, a welcome change from the Orc food that disgusts them.
The two hobbits offer Gimli some tobacco from barrels they have
discovered at Isengard. The dwarf regrets not having a pipe with
which to smoke the tobacco, but Pippin gives Gimli a pipe of his
own, which Gimli may keep. Gimli is grateful.
Pippin tells the tale of his adventures since he was separated
from his friends. Aragorn returns the hobbits’ knives and the Elf-brooch that
he found on the way. Merry tells of the Ent assembly and the trees’
decision to go to battle against Saruman, describing the Ents’ speed
and great strength in destroying the stone walls of the wizard’s fortress.
The hobbits also relate Gandalf’s meeting with Treebeard to seek
help. The Ents responded by breaking the dams nearby and flooding
the earth under Isengard with water. The Orcs in the lower areas
were wiped out.
Summary — Chapter 10: The Voice of Saruman
“You have become a fool, Saruman, and
yet pitiable. You might still have turned away from folly and evil.
. . But you choose to stay and gnaw the ends of your own plots.”
See Important Quotations Explained
Gandalf and his group set off for the gates of Orthanc
to try to make contact with Saruman. Watching the windows of the
tower, Gandalf calls out Saruman’s name, but gets no response. Finally,
a window opens and they hear the voice of Gríma Wormtongue, Saruman’s
a spy in Théoden’s court. Wormtongue asks what the visitors want. Gandalf
impatiently demands to speak to Saruman himself. Finally Saruman
speaks. He addresses the travelers in a sad and self-pitying voice,
using his powers in an attempt to persuade and placate them.
Saruman first speaks to the Riders of Rohan, claiming
that he only wants peace for all. Théoden and his men are initially
dazzled by Saruman, but Gimli interrupts the wizard to accuse him
of deceit. Saruman tries to maintain his cool, but he explodes in
rage when Gandalf rebukes him. Gandalf responds by breaking Saruman’s staff.
Saruman falls down. The enraged Wormtongue, hidden from view, seeks
revenge by throwing a glowing crystal sphere out of the tower window.
The globe misses Gandalf and rolls along the ground. Pippin picks
it up.
The group prepares to leave Orthanc. As they do, they
hear a piercing cry from Saruman’s quarters. Gandalf knows that
Saruman has realized the loss of the precious globe that Wormtongue
threw out the window. As they leave the gates, Gandalf introduces
Fangorn to Legolas and Gimli. Gandalf asks the Ent to fill the gorge around
Orthanc with water, ensuring that Saruman can never escape. Fangorn
promises that the Ents will do so.
Summary — Chapter 11: The Palantír
As Gandalf and Théoden retreat from Isengard, the wizard
carries Merry with him on Shadowfax, while Aragorn carries Pippin. Merry
and Gandalf chat. They ride late into the night and then stop to
camp. Pippin asks Merry whether Gandalf seems different now that
he has come back from the dead, and Merry replies that the wizard
seems both happier and more serious.
Merry is sleepy and tired of Pippin’s questioning, and
he soon falls asleep. But Pippin, unable to sleep, is tormented
by curiosity about the crystal globe Wormtongue threw out of the
tower. Pippin sneaks over to the sleeping Gandalf and snatches the
globe. Gazing into it, Pippin is appalled by the sight of a dark
flying creature approaching him, and then an image of an evil figure
addressing him. He drops the globe and cries out in fear.
Gandalf awakens, angered at Pippin, as the globe is a palantír, one
of the seven ancient seeing-stones that Sauron has turned to evil uses
as devices to communicate with his minions from his tower in Mordor.
Pippin’s glimpse into the palantír not only enabled
the hobbit to see visions, but allowed Sauron to see Pippin and
into the hobbit’s thoughts. Aragorn notes that the palantír explains
how Saruman was able to communicate with Sauron, and Gandalf notes that
the palantír likely played a large part in the
corruption of the formerly good Saruman. Gandalf also says that
the sight of Pippin in the globe will confuse the Dark Lord, and
that the group can make good use of the delay caused by this confusion.
The wizard explains that the winged creature Pippin saw in the globe
is one of the Nazgûl, the Ringwraiths who pursued
the hobbits earlier in the novel. Gandalf proposes to take Pippin
away on Shadowfax and to ride as far as the court of Edoras.
Analysis — Chapters 9–11
The scene in Chapter 9 in which
various trivial items (the “flotsam and jetsam” of the chapter’s
title) are exchanged forms a rather static interlude between episodes
of action, but it reveals a great deal about the personalities of
the heroes. When Pippin gives Gimli his tobacco pipe, we glimpse
the everyday world of small pleasures and minor details that is
just as important as the drama of catastrophic conflict and heroic
action in The Lord of the Rings. Pippin’s pipe
is a far cry from the Ring, having no bearing on the outcome of
history, ignored by kings and wizards, and uninvolved in any prophecies
or destinies. Yet the pipe is nevertheless a significant object,
a symbol of the values of caring and friendship that make the Fellowship
possible in the first place. Pippin gives Gimli a pipe, a tool of brief
respite from the burden of the quest, as a gesture of good will, simply
because Pippin cares for Gimli and wants him to be comfortable.
Though perhaps a humble, overlooked gesture, the gift of the pipe
embodies the selflessness that is central to the whole novel.
The portrayal of Wormtongue speaking from the window of Orthanc
broadens Tolkien’s exploration of evil. Wormtongue is not an impressive,
powerful villain like Saruman, but a much lesser figure who embodies
corruption and evil on a small scale. Tolkien, as he often does
in his fiction, associates a facility with sweet words and eloquent
phrasing with corruption and deceit in his presentation of Wormtongue.
When Gandalf reveals Wormtongue’s role as spy against Théoden, Wormtongue’s
response is to use a fine speech to sway Théoden against Gandalf.
This deliberate language is precisely what Gandalf uses against
Wormtongue when he calls the spy a “jester.” A jester deals with
language rather than actions, using words playfully for entertainment—an
accusation that strikes a raw nerve in Wormtongue. Equally important,
Tolkien portrays Wormtongue as completely unable to control his
emotions. Wormtongue’s rash toss of the palantír—a
great loss to Saruman, as the sphere is a valuable tool—suggests
the danger of emotional outpouring. The emotional instability of
Wormtongue emphasizes, by contrast, the moderation and self-control
that Tolkien values as heroic.
Pippin’s succumbing to his urge to gaze into the palantír shows
us the “human” side of this endearing character, as well as another example
of the corrupting power of Sauron’s evil. While Pippin does not
steal the palantír from the sleeping Gandalf, it
is clear that the hobbit knows he is doing something he should not
be doing. Yet Tolkien structures the scene to enable us to sympathize
easily with Pippin, making clear the allure of the palantír. Tolkien
narrates the scene from Pippin’s point of view to enhance our understanding
of the hobbit’s motivations. On one level, Pippin is simply bored, unable
to sleep, and fascinated by a mysterious object. His moral failing
here is nothing more than the common human flaw of curiosity, augmented
by the pull of the palantír. Gandalf later notes
that Sauron appropriated the seeing-stones, which were originally
tools used for good by the ancient kings of Gondor, for evil purposes—yet another
example of the Dark Lord’s corruption.
Pippin’s glimpse of the frightening Nazgûl in
the seeing-stone etches the reality of Mordor more clearly in our
minds. Prior to this moment, the only character to have actually
seen Mordor is Frodo, who glimpses it from the top of Amon Hen at
the end of The Fellowship of the Ring. For the
other characters, and for us as readers, Mordor has primarily been
only a vague idea of evil far in the distance, a general destination
to reach eventually. As the novel progresses, Mordor’s presence
is felt more strongly. Gandalf’s words remind us that, though at
times the evil of Sauron may slip from the characters’ minds, Sauron
is constantly watching and searching for the characters, focused
obsessively on the Ring.
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